23rd February – 如月
Earth quake occur when the bedrock on the surface of earth called Plate slides between its border. Japan locates on 4 active plates therefore 10% of earthquake occurring on earth is related to Japan.
Probably many of you have never experienced earthquake in your whole life. However, for people living in Japan, earthquake is such a common natural disaster so most people encounter this shakes from small to big ones.
Earth quake has vertical and horizontal shakes and it is said that more people would feel scared when it is vertical shakes as vertical shakes will occur when the epicenter of earthquake is closer.
There are 2 ways to express the power of earthquake in Japan;
震度 (Shindo) Seismic intensity – Shows how big the earthquake feels in each places. Therefore Shindo will be bigger when epicenter of earthquake is close. Shindo has 10 scale: (1, 2, 3, 4, 5弱, 5強, 6弱, 6強, 7弱, 7強 ) 弱(Jaku)=smaller / 強(Kyou) =bigger
When its 5弱 or more, things can break, 6弱, people cannot stand up and 7 the buildings and things collapses.
マグニチュード Magnitude – The scale of energy which earthquake have. One point higher magnitude means 32 times bigger than one lower point (M1 considered as 1 then M2 is 32). Magnitude is only one for each earthquake. Even when Magnitude is big, if the area you are in is far from epicenter, the shakes will be smaller. On the other hand, even the Magnitude is small, if you stay close from epicenter the shake will be big.
When you encounter earthquake in Japan, it is more useful to check 震度, as it is more related than Magnitude.
You cannot feel safe even after the earthquake, as there can be 余震 (Yoshin) =extended earthquake, because the plates has slid it can still movable. This following shakes can continue a month and could be very big shakes, so it is better to be careful even after the earthquake.
Furthermore, when the earthquake happens, it also can bring Tsunami, as you can expect from the huge earthquake and tsunami happened in Fukushima in 2011. When the earthquake epicenter is deeper in the sea, the speed of tsunami is faster.
Most impotantly, earthquakes occur without notice. Therefore, we always have to be prepared in the worst case.
Blog for tomorrow will explain how to mitigate the life risks from earthquake, so hope you visit my blog again!
Little Japan Dictionary 
However, for people of Nepal, also an earthquake is such a common natural disaster now.
Nepal is particularly prone to earthquakes. It sits on the boundary of two massive tectonic plates – the Indo-Australian and Asian plates.
My experience of the April 2015 earthquake is still fresh in my mind.
Near of 8 magnitudes, scale earthquake trembled our country taking many lives and we are still experiencing its aftershocks.
The developed country might recover soon it’s destroyed infrastructures and heritages. But Nepal after it’s 6 years of a massive earthquake is unable to recover the destructed homes, infrastructure, and precious heritages which is on the verge of getting Expelled from the UN World heritage site.
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